Swansboro girls upset S. Lenoir in ECC tny

Swansboro's Alyah Johnson shoots against South Lenoir in the opening round of the ECC tournament Tuesday. The seventh-seeded Pirates upset No. 2 South Lenoir 48-43.

Chris Miller/The Daily News

By Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 10:00 AM.

RICHLANDS — Swansboro didn’t back down this time, matching second-seeded South Lenoir’s aggressiveness on the boards and everywhere else.

Not only that, the seventh-seeded Pirates didn’t blink after missing a string of foul shots down the stretch, hitting four in a row in the final 21.1 seconds to upset the Blue Devils 48-43 in the first round of the East Central 2-A Conference girls’ basketball tournament Tuesday night.

“We followed the game plan, and that’s the first time we’ve followed the game plan and been consistent this year,” Swansboro coach Kim Miller said. “We’ve battled a lot of injuries and a lot of illnesses, and we’ve gotten pretty much everybody back.

“Very proud of them because this has been a long time in coming. Hopefully, we’re starting to get things together and can make a run in the conference (tournament).”

Swansboro (6-18) will play third-seeded East Duplin (20-5) on Thursday in the semifinals of the
ECC
tournament. The Panthers held off Richlands 46-44 later Tuesday night to avoid the second big upset of the day.

In what Miller agreed was Swansboro’s biggest win of the year, the Pirates came up with 16 steals while forcing 21 turnovers along with holding their own on the boards against the more physical Blue Devils, who had a 45-43 rebound advantage.

“We battled,” Miller said. “We didn’t back down. That’s been our MO all year is we back down. Well, we decided to go toe-to-toe for once, along with slowing the tempo down and being patience. That’s what works for us. We’re not a NASCAR racing team. When we get into that, that’s when we get blown out by 20 points, 25 points.”

RICHLANDS — Swansboro didn’t back down this time, matching second-seeded South Lenoir’s aggressiveness on the boards and everywhere else.

Not only that, the seventh-seeded Pirates didn’t blink after missing a string of foul shots down the stretch, hitting four in a row in the final 21.1 seconds to upset the Blue Devils 48-43 in the first round of the East Central 2-A Conference girls’ basketball tournament Tuesday night.

“We followed the game plan, and that’s the first time we’ve followed the game plan and been consistent this year,” Swansboro coach Kim Miller said. “We’ve battled a lot of injuries and a lot of illnesses, and we’ve gotten pretty much everybody back.

“Very proud of them because this has been a long time in coming. Hopefully, we’re starting to get things together and can make a run in the conference (tournament).”

Swansboro (6-18) will play third-seeded East Duplin (20-5) on Thursday in the semifinals of the ECC tournament. The Panthers held off Richlands 46-44 later Tuesday night to avoid the second big upset of the day.

In what Miller agreed was Swansboro’s biggest win of the year, the Pirates came up with 16 steals while forcing 21 turnovers along with holding their own on the boards against the more physical Blue Devils, who had a 45-43 rebound advantage.

“We battled,” Miller said. “We didn’t back down. That’s been our MO all year is we back down. Well, we decided to go toe-to-toe for once, along with slowing the tempo down and being patience. That’s what works for us. We’re not a NASCAR racing team. When we get into that, that’s when we get blown out by 20 points, 25 points.”

While eight players scored, Kylie Cleve led the Pirates with 15 points (9 in the second half) and 9 rebounds. Ashley Oriol also had 9 rebounds while Alyah Johnson had 8 for the Pirates, who used their board work for a 19-10 advantage in second-chance points.

Leading the way was Cleve with 8 second-chance points.

“I would swore they had more second-chance and third-chance points, especially in the first half,” Miller said.

Swansboro led 27-22 at halftime and, after losing the lead late in the third quarter, pushed its advantage to 43-36 on a 10-2 run capped by one of two foul shots by Cleve with 1:58 left. From there, however, it was dicey for the Pirates, who hit just one of their next 10 foul shots as South Lenoir rallied to within 44-43.

But Morgan Sheehan hit two foul shots with 21.1 seconds left, and after a missed 3-pointer by the Blue Devils, Alex Watkins, who had missed eight straight foul shots down the stretch, hit two free throws with 7.9 seconds left to clinch the win.

South Lenoir was led by Heather West and Demeyia Adams with 13 points each. Adams, a 5-foot-9 junior, also had 13 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who were led on the boards by 5-foot-10 Marquia Suddeth with 15 rebounds.

“We challenged them today to come out and play as a team collectively, and if we could do that and follow the game plan, then we knew we had a chance if we kept them to 40 points, which they got 43, then that’s within that little range we gave them,” Miller said. “And for us to get 48, that might be the most we’ve scored all year.”